Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was deliberately pushed into the conflict in Ukraine. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
According to Putin, Russia did not want to take up arms.
"We did not want this, and we did not start the war; on the contrary, they started fighting us. I am confident that Russia was deliberately driven to this situation. We were forced to take up arms and defend ourselves in response to the obvious aggression against us," he said at the plenary session of the XXIII annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
The Russian president called for jointly seeking ways to settle the conflict in Ukraine.
"As I have said before in my remarks, let us live in peace and together look for how this issue can be resolved," he said.